Alabama

Author Roy Hoffman Talks About Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird'Roy Hoffman, a novelist and journalist based in Mobile, Ala., talks about lasting impressions of Harper Lee's prize-winning novel of the South, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Hoffman is author of the novels "Almost Family" and "Chicken Dreaming." His newest novel, "Come Landfall," is about three women on the Mississippi coast, the men they love, and the wars that shape them. A contributor to The New York Times, Fortune and Southern Living and a past member of the Press-Register staff in Mobile, Hoffman's nonfiction collections are "Back Home" and "Alabama Afternoons."

Much like everyone else who has weighed in on Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” I don’t remember much from the first time I read the novel.

What I can tell you is that I was probably a freshman in high school who, despite being an avid reader, didn’t take too kindly to being forced to read a book, as that was my MO with most required reading.

This time around, reading the book has been nothing but a pleasure. It’s been interesting to reexamine the fiction town of Maycomb through the lens of adulthood and with more historical context at my disposal.

I also find myself identifying with Scout Finch's bewilderment when it comes to race relations as more and more Maycomb residents reveal their disdain for her father, Attticus, and his decision to represent Tom Robinson in court.

Chapters 11 and 12

By the opening of chapter 11, Scout has had her fair share of run-ins with relatives and other children because of her father’s role in Robinson’s case. It’s summer again when Jem and Scout come upon their neighbor, Mrs. Dubose while walking into town to buy a miniature steam engine and a baton.

Dubose yells at the children in what Scout describes as her usual “ruthless interrogation regarding our behavior” and a “melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing.”

This time, however, she uses the opportunity to launch into the children about their father’s new client, calling Atticus a [expletive] lover and yelling, “Your father’s no better than the [n-words] and trash he works for!”

This sends the usually calm Jem into a rage and he takes Scout’s newly acquired baton and destroys Dubose’s garden.

Jem goes to apologize and Atticus begins to explain to Scout that even though much of the town thinks he’s wrong for defending Robinson, he’s not.

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience,” he tells her.

As punishment, Jem must read to Dubose for a month.

Scout accompanies Jem and gets a close look at Mrs. Dubose.

“She was horrible,” she notes. “Her face was the color of a dirty pillowcase, and the corners of her mouth glistened with wet, which inched like a glacier down the deep grooves enclosing her chin.”

Dubose serves as the personification of the ugliness of racism. Her insistence on bombarding the Finch children with her thoughts on race and their father’s decision represents the older generation trying to pass down racism to the new one.

About a month after Jem’s punishment is over, Dubose dies and Atticus reveals the reason why she was so sick. She was a morphine addict and Jem’s reading helped her fight her addiction.

This chapter further drove home the lesson of empathy that Atticus tried to teach Scout at the beginning of the book. Even though the old woman was horrible to the children, she still had her own host of problems that needed to be taken into account.

The next chapter is almost entirely about Scout and Jem’s experience at their housekeeper Calpurnia’s church.

Atticus is called to an emergency session at the state legislature and leaves the children in Calpurnia’s care. She decides to take them to her predominately black church one Sunday.

This marks the first extended interaction with black people in the town that Scout details. She and Jem get a good look at how Maycomb’s black population differs from the rest of the town.

For example, they don’t have hymn books in the church, Scout finds out that very few of them can read and she also learns that Calpurnia leads a very different life outside of the time in the Finch home.

The children also learn the real reason Tom Robinson is in jail.

The church experience is also another study in empathy and putting themselves in other’s shoes.

The chapter closes with Cal and the children returning home to find that Aunt Alexandra has arrived.

What were your impressions of chapters 11 and 12? Did I miss anything? If you're reading it again, are you learning anything new? Share in the comments below